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All in News
◢ British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Tuesday he would be willing to work on a "Trump deal" to replace an international accord designed to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons. Britain, France and Germany announced on Tuesday they were launching a dispute mechanism under the JCPOA because Iran was not meeting its commitments.
◢ Flooding in southern Iran has killed at least three people and left hundreds of villages cut off following days of heavy rainfall, official media reported on Tuesday. "More than 20,000 people in villages of Sistan-Baluchistan province have lost their homes because of flooding or are surrounded by water," Deputy Health Minister Alireza Raisi said.
◢ Iran said it’s arrested a number of people linked to the Jan. 8 downing of a Ukrainian passenger jet, and the country’s president called on the judiciary to form a special court and fully investigate the disaster. “I promise that the government, with all its ability and using everything at its disposal, will investigate this matter,” Rouhani told officials in remarks broadcast live on state TV.
◢ Conditions boiled over as Iranians gathered for a second night of protests after the government admitted it had mistakenly downed a Ukrainian passenger jet, triggering global outrage as well as internal dissent. Security forces stepped up their patrols as protesters, many of them students, came out in force in Tehran’s landmark Azadi Square and at Shahid Beheshti University.
◢ Iran said on Saturday its armed forces "unintentionally" shot down a Ukrainian passenger jet that crashed after taking off from Tehran, killing all 176 people aboard. President Hassan Rouhani said a military investigation had found "missiles fired due to human error" brought down the Boeing 737.
◢ The Trump administration imposed new sanctions on Iran on Friday, including penalties on the Islamic Republic’s metals and some senior leaders, following Tehran’s attack on U.S. military bases. The sanctions target the nation’s steel industry, as well as eight senior Iranian officials and other sectors of the economy.
◢ Lufthansa on Friday said it was canceling all flights to and from Tehran until January 20, following suggestions that Iran may have mistakenly shot down a Ukrainian passenger plane earlier this week. The German group said the flight ban was "due to the unclear security situation for the airspace around Tehran airport.”
◢ The U.S. House of Representatives voted Thursday to limit President Donald Trump’s authority to strike Iran, a mostly symbolic move Democrats say defends Congress’s constitutional powers but Republicans say endangers national security. The resolution was adopted on a 224-194 vote, as tensions in the Middle East remain high.
◢ Iran has invoked an international agreement to get assistance from foreign investigators—including from the U.S.—in the investigation of Wednesday’s fiery crash of a jetliner near Tehran, according to two people familiar with the matter. However, American agencies including the National Transportation Safety Board are weighing whether it is legal to engage with Iranian authorities under the terms of sanctions the U.S. has imposed on Iran.
◢ President Donald Trump said no Americans were harmed by an Iranian missile attack on U.S. bases in Iraq early Wednesday, defended the U.S. killing of a top Iranian general and said he would impose new sanctions on Tehran. “Iran appears to be standing down,” Trump said. “Which is a good thing for all parties concerned and a very good thing for the world.”
◢ Iran fired more than a dozen missiles at U.S.-Iraqi airbases, a direct attack on American forces in the region that risks further action from President Donald Trump after a U.S. air strike killed top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani last week. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed responsibility for the barrage.
◢ Dozens of people were crushed to death after a stampede broke out Tuesday during a massive funeral procession for a top Iranian general assassinated in a US drone strike. "The enemy killed him unjustly," the Revolutionary Guards' top commander, Major General Hossein Salami said, adding the process of "expelling the United States from the region has begun.”
◢ U.S. President Donald Trump and his top aides spent the weekend arguing that the killing of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani would deter future attacks and make the Middle East safer. Instead, U.S. policy in the region seems to be going in the opposite direction of what Trump has long promised.
◢ Downtown Tehran was brought to a standstill Monday as mourners flooded the Iranian capital to pay an emotional homage to Qassem Soleimani, the "heroic" general killed in a US strike. Young and old were packed shoulder-to-shoulder in the streets, including women dressed in black-clad chadors and others wearing loose-fitting hijabs.
◢ Iran on Sunday announced its fifth reduction in its nuclear commitments, saying it will forego the "limit on the number of centrifuges", as tensions with the United States soar after the killing of a top Iranian commander in a US strike. Tehran said it would continue cooperating "as before" with the International Atomic Energy Agency.
◢ Iran's foreign minister has been invited to Brussels, the European Union said Sunday, January 5, urging a "de-escalation of tensions" in the Persian Gulf after a US air strike that killed top general Qassem Soleimani. The EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell made the offer to Mohammad Javad Zarif during a telephone call this weekend.
◢ Mourners flooded the Iranian cities of Ahvaz and Mashhad Sunday, weeping and beating their chests in homage to top general Qasem Soleimani who was killed in a US strike in Baghdad. In the northeastern city of Mashhad, scores took to streets around the Imam Reza shrine and, addressing the US, chanted "Be afraid of your own shadow".
◢ US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Friday that Washington's European allies had not been "as helpful" as he hoped over the US killing of Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani in Iraq. Following the assassination, EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell called on all involved actors "to exercise maximum restraint and show responsibility in this crucial moment."
